


Loyal to a fault

by Kangoo



Category: Warcraft - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Double Agent Kael'thas, Everybody Lives, M/M, Notfic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-13
Updated: 2021-01-13
Packaged: 2021-03-18 01:15:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,314
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28734822
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kangoo/pseuds/Kangoo
Summary: Kael'thas isn't a traitor, though he does his best to look the part.
Relationships: Illidan Stormrage/Kael'thas Sunstrider
Comments: 2
Kudos: 18





	Loyal to a fault

**Author's Note:**

> man what was i on in 2018? some of this shit is pretty good

What if Kael’thas had been a double agent instead?

Kael’thas who never backs down, never goes back on a promise and never, ever gives up. Kael’thas who’s young and reckless and an idiot who’s still too clever for his own good. Kael’thas who sees Illidan and thinks, _I’d die for that man_ , _and maybe it’s not such a bad way to go._

Illidan is smart, too, but he’s running on fumes and panic and there’s only so much sheer spite can do in the war effort. They need a break, but for that they need to get one step ahead of a Legion, and that’s never been done before. The demons strike at random, their troops are nearly impossible to track, and this whole army is barely keeping up as is.

What they need is reliable intel — from the inside. But although demons aren’t loyal, it’s not _loyalty_ that keeps them obedient: it’s fear, and there’s nothing Illidan could offer them that would trump the destruction and chaos Sargeras promised them in case of betrayal.

And then Kael’thas has an idea. 

Send one of their own to kil’jaeden. Make them a traitor, a coward, an opportunist — they wouldn’t be the first, nor the last, to come to the legion for power or survival or revenge.

It’s a decent idea. Better than anything else they have. Now the issue is this: who would be smart enough, deceiving enough, _loyal_ enough, to be thrown to the wolves and lie his way to the top, and still be trusted to send intel to them? It can’t be just anyone — the nagas are too loyal to their queen for kil’jaeden to believe in their betrayal. The draenei are barely their allies and, like the orcs, they have had no reasons to develop such undying loyalty to illidan.

A blood elf would make more sense — they do not have the best track record when it comes to loyalty but most wouldn’t dare to go against a direct order from their prince. It can’t be _any_ blood elf. Kil’jaeden would not bother with a footsoldier. He’ll want an officer. An advisor. Someone with insider knowledge.

He’ll want Kael’thas.

Illidan reacts the way you’d expect him to: with a definitive _no_. 

It’s no use. Kael’thas has already made up his mind and they both know it’s the only way.

_You don’t have do to this_ , Illidan tells him. Kael’thas peruses his notes, looking for the soldiers he knows would gladly follow him to the legion, to a surer victory, and says _I do_.

No one must know it is an act. If this proves anything, it’s that you never know who could be a traitor.

Kael’thas leaves for a mission they both know he won’t come back from, with troops that he can’t ever trust, and to everyone else in the world, the prince of the sin’dorei betrayed everything they stood for and defected to the Legion.

Rommath tries his best not to scream. Sylvanas nearly breaks her hand punching a wall in rage. Vashj shakes her head and swears that there must be another reason, that he can’t be doing this willingly.

(She’s half right.)

When Illidan isn’t training his new demon hunters, whose ranks were bolstered by blood elves seeking revenge on the prince they trusted and lost, he locks himself in his chambers and reads every report from Kael’thas one, two, three times.

They’re cold, matter-of-fact summaries of what little of the Legion’s plans he hears about. It’s priceless information — an opportunity, _finally_. Kael'thas is alone, doing everything he can to assure the world he turned his back on, everything he’s ever loved, will survive. He endures, and with each careful letter they gain an advantage.

It breaks his heart to read them.

And then, one day, Azeroth’s troops decide to move against the part of the Legion stationed at Tempest Keep. One less ally for the Legion, they think, and Illidan—

Illidan is many things. A warrior, a sorcerer, a general, a demon hunter and, in Kael’thas’ own words, ‘a stubborn, reckless son of a bitch’.

(Fair enough.)

He has sacrificed countless things in his fight against the legion. People, morals, his sense of ethics, among other things. But he won’t — he _can’t_ — sacrifice Kael’thas, too.

Kael'thas fights his decision. He still has a job to do and he believes that, with a little more time, he could turn the tide of this war.

_I won’t die_ , he tells Illidan in a letter, trying and failing to be reassuring. _they won’t let me_.

Illidan burns the letter and thinks about it. He knows what he will gain from keeping Kael’thas where he is. Information, enough to keep winning this uphill battle against Kil’jaeden. But if Kael’thas were to die, he would lose everything. His most trusted agent, his best friend, his lover.

Is it worth it? The risk, the reward?

(They both know it might not be. Illidan backs down anyway. The war comes before the soldier, always.)

Kael’thas fights the adventurers and loses, but he was right in saying the Legion would not let such a useful pawn die. He survives, for a given definition of survival. For a second he thinks, _this mission isn’t over_.

It is.

Fel is a thing of corruption, a magic of chaos and decay. It eats at his heart, his mind, until everything becomes a blur. Intrusive thoughts become truth — Illidan abandoned him, or he betrayed illidan, the Legion made him an offer he couldn’t refuse. He’s a double agent but he doesn’t remember who he is doubling. Then he doesn’t even remember anything but the pain and the whispers of Kil’jaeden in the back of his mind.

In another world Illidan dies knowing he has betrayed his closest friend, and kael’thas dies forgetting he never did.

In this one, slightly kinder, when the people of Azeroth send their soldiers to Magister’s Terrace, Illidan does, too.

(He’s always been a lovesick fool.)

Kael’thas lost his advisors but he was one of the best mages in the Kirin Tor, if not _the_ best. Even on his own he can hold his own long enough for — for what? there’s no point. No one coming for him.

He will die here. Leaving his work unfinished sits poorly with him, but he barely remembers what his work even _is_.

Double agent never was a position with a high life expectancy anyway. He knew this once, he took the risk. There’s nothing left to do but stand, a snarl on his lips and Felo’melorn slipping between his blood-slick fingers, and go down fighting.

And then something — someone — slams into him, tackling him to the ground and out of the way of a spell that might have done him in.

“It’s over, sir,” the demon hunter above says.They look so much like illidan, and yet so little. After so long without sight of him it’s jarring. “Time to get you home.”

He doesn’t want to leave. He’s not given a choice in the matter. Illidari aren’t known for backing down easily, just like their master, and this one is an illidari on a mission, which is the most stubborn kind of all. They hoist him on their shoulders, deaf to his complaints, his assurance that he can still fight, he can still win this, and in a second they are gone through a portal, leaving behind bewildered and enraged adventurers.

They lose their biggest asset, but Illidan can’t be bothered to care. It was already lost and he’s not one to make needless sacrifices. His heart stuck in his throat, he holds an outraged Kael’thas against his chest and says, almost too quiet to hear, _I’m so glad to have you back._

And Kael’thas closes his arms around him and says, just as low, _you reckless bastard_ , and it sounds exactly like _I love you_.

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Out of time](https://archiveofourown.org/works/28763922) by [cherikak](https://archiveofourown.org/users/cherikak/pseuds/cherikak)




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